Seven West Media
is pushing to have its broadcast rights for the Australian Open tennis extended without Tennis Australia putting the deal out to tender. It is understood the media group has held discussions with members of the Tennis Australia board about extending the contract beyond the 2014 expiry date in exchange for a sweetened deal.

No decision has been made but the proposal – which would include a revised bid for the rights – is being considered by the sports body, sources close to Tennis Australia said.

Tennis Australia chief executive
Steve Wood
would not comment other than to say his organisation had regular dialogue with its broadcasters. Seven’s push has been led by commercial director
Bruce McWilliam
, who handles most of the broadcaster’s sports rights negotiations.

Seven is hoping to prevent rival
Ten Network
– whose chief executive
James Warburton
is keen to bid for the Australian Open – from participating in a negotiation process. Ten has been actively pursuing broadcast rights for other sports, including rugby league and V8 Supercars.

Seven’s present tennis contract, running from 2009 to 2014, is worth an estimated $14 million annually and also includes new media rights under the terms of the agreement it brokered with Tennis Australia in 2007. Fox Sports Australia holds the pay television rights.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

The 2007 deal was also not put out to tender, and extended Seven’s long-running broadcast relationship with Tennis Australia.

Seven signed that deal just after it had lost out to Nine and Foxtel for the local TV, internet and mobile phone rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 London Olympics for $US100 million.

The price Nine and Foxtel agreed was a 30 per cent increase in the fee Seven paid for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and 2008 Beijing Olympics. At $14 million annually, the tennis deal was a 40 per cent increase from the previous $10 million-a-year deal.

Goldman Sachs media analyst Christian Guerra predicted the value of the tennis rights will rise when they are renegotiated based on the Australian Open’s strong television ratings and crowd numbers.

“One intriguing aspect of the Australian Open’s attendances is the male-female gender balance," Mr Guerra said. “The Australian Open is heavily skewed toward female patrons. Indeed, this skew became more pronounced in 2010.

“In our view, this is an attractive point of differentiation for the Australian Open (and tennis rights in general) compared with other major Australian sports."

It was thought that Seven’s rivals had little interest in tennis, given Nine Network was broadcasting cricket at a similar time and Ten had motor sport and Australian Rules football commitments throughout the year.

But with its schedule over two weeks in late January, the Australian Open provides a value springboard into the subsequent ratings season for Seven, which has also successfully lobbied for both the women’s and men’s finals to be played in evening prime time in recent years.

All the free-to-air networks have also expressed interest in the rights for the National Rugby League competition, which is held by Nine and Fox Sports and expires in September.

The Australian Rugby League Commission has appointed investment bank Greenhill Caliburn to lead the negotiations.